Green Design

Green Design Overview

300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds and what to do now ***

Almost all the trendlines are going the wrong way, we’re losing species, trees, topsoil and increasing people, consumption, pollutants and greenhouse gases. But the good news about all the bad news is that it will force us to make the changes we have been avoiding, and we get to rethink everything, which is rather exciting. The future does not have to be one of chaos and scarcity if we are smarter, doing more with less. In addition, Paul Hawken explains to us that a movement of hundreds of thousands of interconnected groups ( searchable database) are arising to heal the planet, its autoimmune system kicking in. Because of their lack of resources and the size of their task/opponents, they are faster and more creative. Moreover, as we learn in the closing chapter of Blessed Unrest, they are great at solving for pattern:

“The term solving for pattern was coined by Wendell Berry, and refers to a solution that addresses multiple problems instead of one. Solving for pattern arises naturally when one perceives problems as symptoms of systemic failure, rather than random errors requiring anodynes. For example, sustainable agriculture addresses a number of issues simultaneously: It reduces agricultural runoff, which is a main cause of eutrophication and dead zones in lakes, estuaries and oceans; it reduces use of energy-intensive nitrogen-based fertilizers; it ameliorates climate change, because organic soil sequesters carbon, whereas industrial farming releases carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and is the second-greatest cause of climate change after fossil fuel combustion; it improves worker health because of the absence of pesticide; it enables soil to retain more moisture and is thus less reliant on irrigation and outside sources of water; it is more productive than conventional agriculture; it is less susceptible to erosion; and it provides habitat for pollinators, birds, and beneficial insects, which promotes biodiversity. On top of all that, the resulting food commands a premium in the market, making small farms economically more viable. Solving for pattern is the de facto approach of the movement because it is resource constrained. It cannot afford “fixes”, only solutions.”

A good overview of Green Design can be found in William McDonough’s great 2007 TEDtalk.

Lots of info is on Sustainability

But here’s some highlights:

1. General Ideas on Design and Creativity

How to brainstorm and how NOT to, from the Stanford d-School. Stanford crash course on Design Thinking (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test): 90 minutes hands-on, video. ****

2. Appropriate Technology is design that is cheap, durable, suitable for developing countries: Examples: Amos Winter: The cheap all-terrain wheelchair Baby Incubator Of the four million babies worldwide who die in the first month of life, one million die on their first day. After seeing countless piles of discarded medical device donations behind every hospital we visited overseas, Design That Matters started asking the question, "What does gets fixed? The answer: cars. So they designed an incubator made from car parts . (video). See also: Students at Stanford in the Extreme Affordability class designed a $25 incubator for premature babies (normally $20,000 and require electricity)and a deep lift human powered well pump. George Kembel, co-founder and executive director of the d.school (aka Hasso Plattner Institute of Design) Complete talk.

3. Inspired By Nature (Bio-mimicry)

Example: Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic?

4. Stanford d-School: uses Design Thinking

60 Minutes profile of IDEO’s David Kelley on Design Thinking

5. Adventures in Engineering

No one should be able to have as much fun as Saul Griffith (high altitude energy from kites, electric car, hydrofoil etc etc Video talk.

More examples

These guys just revolutionized the humble cardboard box